Book Excerpts

“Dirt”

The majority of my time in Mississippi for Freedom Summer was spent working
in the Community Center in Meridian with anywhere from 30- 40 children.
We read books, did arts and crafts projects, listened to the record player
that had been donated to the Center and sometimes even went on “field
trips”

For days, I had noticed that a lot of the children’s cheeks were
bulging, like they had their mouths filled with candy. I knew they were
all from quite poor homes and assumed they would not have their own pennies
to buy candy. So one day, I ask one of the children

“What are you eating?”

“Dirt” came the reply.

Not believing my ears, I repeated “What?”

“Dirt,” came the answer again.

“Can you show me?” I curiously asked. And out of the mouths
of several of the children came a grey clay-like chunk of……….dirt!
I did my best to not show my shock and instead asked them where they got
it. “We’ll show you,” they said and I followed them
outside and down the street until we came to a lot where they picked up
more chunks of their precious dirt. I asked them if I could have some
and tucked it away in a pocket.

After I returned from Mississippi, I put the dirt in a bowl and left
it on the middle of my table. The dirt had visible veins of minerals running
through it, and the children in their bodies’ wisdom, somehow knew
that they could get needed minerals from the dirt. The bowl remains on
my table to remind me that not everyone has the bowls of food to put on
their table that I do.